Young drinkers opt for cider to avoid tax

YOUNGER drinkers have turned to cheaper alcoholic cider since alcopops were slugged with increased tax, a survey has found.

Cider escaped the extra tax introduced in 2010 because it is a fruit-based drink.

The Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education (FARE), together with the Centre for Alcohol Policy Research (CAPR), asked more than 26,000 Australians what they drink.

While it found that most men (83 per cent) prefer regular beer and most women (73.9 per cent) opt for bottled wine, younger drinkers aged between 14 and 19 years (66.2 per cent) go for the ready-to-drink (RTD) alcohol and bottled spirits.

There was some concern that the alcopops tax had led to the promotion of drinks such as cider.

The report said that cider sales in Australia rose steadily throughout 2011 and were expected to rise over 2012 by 21 per cent.

It found that regular beer decreased in popularity with age after peaking among the 20 to 29 year-olds and RTDs went backwards in popularity when drinkers moved into their 20s.

Nearly one-third of home brew and cask wine drinkers have a daily tipple, compared with only 12.5 per cent of full-strength beer drinkers and 7.9 per cent of bottled wine drinkers.

The report's author Dr Sarah Callinan says that understanding what people drink is important in developing policies that better target different population groups.

"This research highlights that it's not enough to look at broad categories, such as beer, wine and spirits," she said.

"When we drill down further we can see differences in demographics and drinking patterns that can better inform government alcohol policy aimed at reducing alcohol harms."